


The Arbiter

by m4x_87



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, Stuff, Timey-Wimey, wibbly-wobbly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 07:25:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m4x_87/pseuds/m4x_87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's always one step up on the Chain of Command. Everyone answers to someone. There's always something bigger and more powerful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, this was just me fuckin around. I had vague ideas for it, not really enough for a full story, just drabbles. It's not very good either, but it amuses me, which was the point.
> 
> Leandra is supposed to follow him from tenth doctor on, and regenerates three times, once into a guy who looks like a cross between Jason Momoa and Keith Hamilton Cobb (built, lean, pouty lips, long hair), with darker skin and Bright hazel eyes, once into a petite, fit but not slender Pacific Islander with short, fluffy hair that she likes to twist into upright braids, and once into a Silurian female.
> 
> And she's in love with the TARDIS. And she fangirls over the companions (especially Donna and Martha, but also Rose because the Doctor has heart-eyes for Rose and Leandra totally ships it)

In her defense, she wasn't paying attention.

Okay, so it wasn't that much of a defense.

She'd been distracted.

Well…at that point, she hadn't even been a she.

She'd just been…there. Hovering. Maybe not floating exactly, but existing.

She didn't even have a proper name until he touched her.

Which - as mentioned earlier - was a total accident. Never supposed to happen, honest.

Right.

So, explanations. Sure, okay.

They're called the Arbiters - or, well they were called the Arbiters. They aren't called anything anymore really. They all have individual names (more like psychic labels), but since the Time War, they've just become creatures of consciousness. Welll, they were always creatures of consciousness, but they became moreso, because they had nothing else to do.

Well.

Except for maintaining time.

Right, _more_ explanations.

Once upon a time.

No, that's no good.

These things are creatures of time.

No, that's no good either.

They _are_ time. They evolved in nothingness.

Shouldn't be possible.

Is.

Then the great multitude - for there were many in this nothingness - created time.

Because they were _boooooooooooooooooooooored_.

By the way, when _they_ tell it (to each other, because they aren't technically able to talk to physical beings), that's not what they say is the reason, but their reason is long and complicated and full of poetry (see: bullshit). Really, they were bored. Very bored.

Very.

Very.

_Very_ bored.

So, they created time.

It was a bit messy.

Kind of loud.

Bright.

Big.

Sort of Bangy.

Yes, alright, creating time started the Big Bang. Now you know, happy?

Anyway…

The Universe formed.

Then more Universes, which delighted the Arbiters, because it was something they hadn't thought of - a side effect of time, one they were obliged to investigate.

For every instant of the universe, there are choices. Every choice gets its very own existence.

A giant spiderweb of time and space and matter and nothing.

The multiverse.

Beautiful. Elegant. Intricate.

Disastrous. Dangerous. Terrible.

Lively.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Universes formed.

Galaxies, stars, planets.

Then something weird happened.

Then there was life.

That was one of the Arbiters, but no one knows who, and no one's fessed up yet.

So, life. Another thing that wasn't supposed to happen, and in one of those endless number of universes, it never did.

Anyway, the Arbiters observed life, and how it grew in so many places, and how it grew at different rates, and they recognized that at some point, there would be a race of beings that could become a threat to time itself. Beings that could manipulate time - beings they would be able to do nothing about because they'd found they weren't designed to interact with physical beings.

And then one of the Arbiters - probably the same one that started life in the first place (sneaky bastard) started life on the most magnificent planet in the universe. It watched them.

Nudged them.

Poked and prodded and herded and shaped and guided them.

Until they could - themselves - see and understand and manipulate time. Until they could fix the tears and the paradoxes that arose from messing with time.

But, there was something different about them.

They could hear the Arbiters.

Not really. Not directly. They didn't have like, deep, meaningful conversations or chat about the weather or anything.

Subconsciously.

Like a whisper.

Like a faint memory.

But it was more than anyone else ever had.

They were Gallifreyan.

They became The Time Lords.

That arrangement didn't start out very well.

At first, it was just all the Arbiters shouting at random Time Lords and it was chaos. Absolutely stupid madness. Lots of mistakes were made. And then there was that whole 'untempered schism' thing. That wasn't supposed to happen. Oops, sorry.

Anyway.

Ahem.

So then some of the more level headed Arbiters got control of the whole shebang and decided that it would be much simpler (and less of a headache) if there were one Arbiter per Time Lord.

After that, everything was _much_ , much smoother.

Then came the Time War. And the Time Lock. And suddenly there was only one Time Lord left.

The Time Lord.

The Doctor.

And only one Arbiter.

And nothing for the rest to do but to watch over time and try to flag the duo down when there was trouble. And his Arbiter followed him around, unable to directly communicate, but telling him things that sank into his subconscious until he divined a solution to whatever situation had arisen. And they solved many problems. And they went on many adventures.

And he never knew that she was there.

Until he accidentally touched her.

Not like _that_ you pervs.

Seriously, he was just walking around the Tardis - except, let's be honest, he was _flailing_ around the Tardis. The man never walks in a normal fashion unless he's sad or lost in thought. And his arbiter was used to this. Nine hundred years he's been waving his arms about, the arbiter always moving out of the way so they didn't touch.

They weren't supposed to touch.

It wasn't like a taboo or anything, it was just…

In the beginning there were a few Arbiters who touched Time Lords, and when that happened they became physically anchored.

And then they died.

Or rather, they disappeared screaming, which didn't lend itself to the opinion that they were still alive anywhere.

And no Arbiter had ever died before.

And they were afraid of that. Couldn't deal with the implications.

So there was a no-touching rule implemented.

Of course, there are always people who disagree.

No Arbiter has ever touched their Time Lord and stuck around for more than ten seconds.

Anyway, now that you've got the basic facts, let's get back to The Doctor, his Arbiter, and his Companion.

Ah yes, his Companion.

Rose Tyler.

What a peach.

She was, in fact, the _reason_ that The Doctor's Arbiter wasn't paying attention.

She wasn't doing anything special. She wasn't touching the controls or singing or dancing or anything _interesting_. She was just…being.

Of course, she was _being_ inside the Tardis with the Doctor, which made her more special than most, but his Arbiter was especially fond of the people who tagged along. They were fascinating. In some aspects they were more fascinating than the Doctor. After all, as previously stated, the Arbiter had been with him since he became The Doctor. She knew almost everything there was to know about him.

His companions on the other hand were an unknown, and just endlessly... _fascinating_.

So Rose was listening to The Doctor and the Arbiter was observing Rose, not paying attention, and the Doctor took a step and gestured with his left hand and by the time the Arbiter realized what was happening, the Doctor had hit her in the shoulder.

And she had a shoulder to hit.

And all hell broke loose.


	2. Chapter 2

In the first moment of her coalescence, there was a lot of blinking, and The Doctor let out a startled, 'What?' while Rose gaped at her before quickly looking away.

"Oh my god," she muttered, blushing furiously. 

The Arbiter looked at The Doctor, gaping at her, and blinked at him before looking down at herself.

 

"Oh," she said. The Doctor shook his head quickly in confusion.

" _What_?" he demanded. She looked at him, blinking again, but then--

"This blinking thing is confusing. It makes the light go away for brief periods of time but I've never had to do that before. You do it a lot, does it bother you?" she asked. 

" _What?!_ " 

"Sorry, don't know why I said that - got distracted - it is distracting. Everything's distracting. Noise is distracting. I have a physical body," she told him. Her last sentence carried an accusatory tone that he leaned away from, while in the background, Rose made a noise and muttered, "I'll say you have." 

"Well don't blame me, I didn't _do_ anything," he snapped. She raised both eyebrows.

"You _hit_ me," she told him. He blinked at her. 

"Did I? Yes I did. Waved my hand and hit you in the shoulder, but it wasn't there three seconds ago, so who are you and where did you come from?" he demanded. 

"And why aren't you wearin' anythin'?" Rose asked the central console. She was staring at it very hard with her face all screwed up. The Arbiter looked at her, newly formed eyebrows scrunching on her head before looking down at herself again - this time more closely. 

"Oh, I'm female. That's interesting. I never really considered myself a feminine presence, although your propensity for attracting more girl companions than guy companions probably had an influence on my physical structure," she noted, before some sort of systems failure took place in her legs, which suddenly stopped working. She collapsed to the grated walkway and then gave a squawk that quickly devolved into a wail. "That was an extremely unpleasant experience! Oh my gosh, ow! What is this? What's happening?" she cried. The Doctor looked down at her, confused. 

"It's just a scraped knee," he told her, and she stared at him as if he'd suddenly turned orange and sprouted a sombrero.

"Scraped knee? I don't get scraped knees, I don't have _knees_!" She told him angrily before something tugged at her stomach just below her newly formed belly button. "Oh, there's about to be further unpleasantness, brace yourselves," she warned them before being struck with the jarring, scraping, wrenching sensation of being pulled in four thousand and twenty-three (to a factor of 20n, where n represents the infinity of the multiverse) places at once. There was a cacophonous noise that she would later recognize as the three of them screaming and then her ears popped, blotting the noise temporarily. 

After a moment, time settled, and she looked up at the Tardis ceiling. She blinked. Her everything was sore, but still unexpectedly there.

"Oh," she said, turning her head and looking at the Doctor, who was gaping at her warily. "I'm still alive. That's handy. I wonder if this means the others survived after taking physical form," she said. 

"What?" he asked, although by now his tone held no hope of ever getting an answer. 

"Sorry about that," she told him, trying to work her limbs and managing to get herself sitting up. 

"What - the hell - was that?" Rose demanded. 

"I was anchored to the physical plane, there was bound to be some backlash," she answered, although to be fair, it wasn't as coherent an answer as they could have asked for. 

"What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?" Rose asked, looking at the Doctor, who shrugged and shook his head.

"I really don't know," he told her. The Arbiter scoffed.

"You wouldn't. That's kind of the point of us," she said, before tilting her head thoughtfully. "Unless you knew Kat'rell," she amended, looking around. "Or Rolneff. Or Nimh," she added. 

"Who?" 

"Early Time Lords. They had Arbiters too that got anchored accidentally - at least, that's what they say. I don't know, I think Nimh's probably touched him on purpose hoping to get physical so the two of them could 'get physical'," she added. 

"Nimh's what? Who are you?" Doctor asked. She looked at him critically.

"I'm an Arbiter," she repeated. "Aren't you listening?" 

"I'm listening, you're not explaining very well," he said. She snorted before making a face.

"Gimme a break, I've been corporeal all of two minute and thirty six seconds," she snapped before sighing. "Why am I so heavy?" 

"What do you mean? You look fit enough," Rose commented, but she just looked down at herself. "Are you sayin' you've never had a body before?" 

"That's correct," replied the Arbiter.

"But if you've never had a body before, how're you talkin?" Rose asked.

"Talking? Talking's easy. Open your mouth, words tumble out. Trick is not to think about it, thinking about it makes it hard, makes it more complicated than it needs to be. You know what's hard? Standing is hard. There's balance and coordination and muscles and - oh my stars, _gravity_. I'm being affected by gravity, that's why I'm heavy. How stupid is that? I've never been affected by gravity before," she said. Rose scoffed.

"Lucky," she quipped.

"Is this reality? I don't like it. This is so unpleasant. I feel like I'm being compressed. Holy flying bison, how do you people do this?" the Arbiter demanded. The Doctor scrunched his nose.

"Holy Flying Bison?"

"Doctor," Rose admonished lightly. 

"Right," he replied quickly, looking at their unexpected passenger. "Who are you, anyway? What's your name?" he asked. She blinked up at him.

"Oh. Right. Names. Uh…Leandra," she answered. He blinked. 

"Nice name. Is it real?" 

"It's the closest I could get with this palette and a tongue," she answered before realizing that she'd been distracted again. "But seriously, how do you people live your lives in this oppressive, gravity-filled mass?" she demanded. 

"What d'you mean how? We just…sort of do," Rose answered. Leandra rolled her eyes.

"Oh, sure. Easy for you to say, you've been standing all your life. It's easy to resist the crush of reality when you're born into it, but _I wasn't_! I've never even had…" she trailed off with a frustrated expression as she looked down at her hands, and the Doctor arched an eyebrow.

"Arms?" he guessed.

"Arms," she repeated immediately through gritted teeth, a blush rising to her cheeks. "I've never had arms before, and I've never had…" She trailed off again, staring down at her legs where they were folded awkwardly under her. The Doctor scratched the side of his neck.

"Legs?" he offered. 

"Legs, I've never had legs before - stop telling me what they are, I know what they are, I don't need you to tell me! I'm nine hundred and sixty-four years old, _dammit_! I think I can remember the appellations of the body parts of a physical body!" she snapped sullenly before taking gasping breaths and clutching at the skin over her hearts which were beating too fast. "What's…What's happening?"

"Oh, I think she's havin' an anxiety attack," Rose said, crouching next to the newly formed woman and nervously tucking her hair behind her ears. "Um…look, just breathe, alright? Just…just breathe," she said, taking exaggerated breaths. Leandra looked at her like she was simple. 

"Daleks on doorsteps, don't tell me I have to manually regulate my breathing _too_!"

Rose looked up at the Doctor, who rubbed a hand over his face and then sighed.

"Right. Rose, you take her into the wardrobe and find her something to wear. Girls like clothes, don't they? And anyway picking something to wear should calm her down. I'll park us somewhere quiet and make cocoa so we can figure this out," he said. Rose nodded, much more comfortable now that she had a mission. She put her arms carefully around Leandra and levered her up into a mostly standing position. The two of them staggered off with Rose muttering quietly to Leandra and The Doctor watched, puzzled frown on his face.

What was going on and what the hell was an Arbiter?


End file.
